Why Looking Good Helps Mental Health

There is some truth to the saying that “if you look good, you feel fabulous”  When you look in the mirror you should see someone with high self-eseteem not someone who does not seem to care for his or her appearance because they are suffering from anger, anxiety or depression.

 

One of the first symptoms that our mental hygiene is lapsing and is letting our personal appearance go. It means that we are feeling overwhelmed by what we are feeling and cannot manage the basics like bathing, putting on deodorant, shaving, dressing in style, putting on makeup and all those other things that keep you attractive and feeling confident.

 

Your appearance is all about your self-esteem and when your self-esteem is low due to anger at yourself, grief or some other emotion then you let yourself go. Your appearance begins to reflect just how little you think of yourself.

 

If you are feeling a bit blue try to set twenty minutes a day that is devoted specifically to grooming yourself in some way, whether it is doing your nails, plucking your eyebrowss or shaving your legs.

 

Dressing appropriately also helps you stay in a good mood.  This means keeping up with doing your laundry and dry-cleaning.  It also means wearing the right thing for the right occasion. Don’t wear the same stretchy pants and loose top that you wear to Walmart to a fancy dinner that same night.  If you are dressing to go to work then dress at a level that your superiors do.  This raises your self-esteem and creates respect for you with others.  Dressing like who you want to be can also help you actually meet your aspirations.  This is called “faking it til you make it.

 

Keeping the nails on your hands and feet trimmed and polished can also help you feel great. Schedule a manicure and pedicure when you can as even the act of having someone else groom you can help improve mood.  The same result often happens if you take the trouble to go to a salon at least once a month.

 

It also helps to manage your time in the morning so that you can make yourself look as beautiful as possible.  Do not just get up, barely run a comb through your hair and run out the door.  Develop a daily beauty regime that does not allow you to go out the door unless you are dressed appropriately.  This will give you a mental lift throughout the entire day.

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Drinking Your Vitamins is Better For You

Is it possible to drink your vitamins? It is if you own a juicer or a super-sophisticated blender like a Magic Bullet.  Better than a pill, juices allow your body to absorb nutrients as fast as possible. Juices work the best if consumed within seconds of being freshly extracted from the fruit or vegetable. Juicing gurus advise holding the juice in your mouth for a couple of seconds before swallowing to get as many nutrients as possible.

 

Fresh juices are also superior to bottled or canned juices in terms of both taste and nutrition. Vitamins can cost anywhere from $5 to $80 or more a bottle. Let’s just say you are in need of Vitamin A supplementation. You can buy Vitamin A plus cofactors for fifteen dollars or more you can buy a bunch of carrots and juice them for less than five bucks. Just one pint of fresh carrot juice contains more than 20,000 international units of pro-Vitamin A in its purest andt natural form?

 

Scientific research also recently reveals that fresh juices may even cure a variety of ailments. For instance, fresh cabbage juice heals ulcers, fresh cilantro juice helps kidney problems and fresh prune juice relieves constipation. Lettuce juice contains an unknown factor that helps relieve insomnia while watermelon juice has anti-inflammatory agents that relieve pain.

 

Green juices have enzymes that encourage weight loss and the regrowth of damaged gum tissue. Orange, yellow and green vegetables may help prevent some forms of cancer. Purple and blue juices contain important phytochemicals that prevent varicose veins and prevent blindness.

 

Naturally derived vitamins from fresh fruits, vegetables, sprout and grasses have more of a nutritional punch then vitamins. For instance one pint of fresh vegetable juice supplies the same live vitamins, minerals and enzymes found in two large vegetable salads. Imagine how beautiful your skin would be if you drank fresh juice every day.

 

Synthetic vitamins are also a “dead” food source of vitamins whereas resh vegetables and fruits are considered to be live.  Incorporated into a healthy diet fresh juices also do not put you at risk for nutritional imbalances in your body.  Juices help the body absorb those nutrients that are often deficient in our modern day diets.  Drinking your vitamins in the form of fresh juices can actually boost your RDA (recommended Daily Allowance) of vitamins by as much as 500%!  No pill can do the same thing!

 

Juicing is not meant to be a replacement for a daily diet. Although fresh juice provides your body with optimum levels of nutrition the maximum long-term health benefits are achieved by incorporating fresh juices into your lifestyle over time and in a sensible manner.

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Hot Stone Therapy

Hot stone therapy is one of the newest therapies offered in salons but it is based on a very ancient Egyptian technique of therapeutic massage. It was also practiced in various forms by the Hawaiians, indigenous people in the South Pacific and during sweat lodge rituals conducted by North American Indigenous peoples. It first became popular in the 1990s and it is till a mainstay in many beauty salons.  Technically the beauty and relaxation treatment is categorized as a form of thermotherapy.

 

In essence smooth flat stones are heated and then placed on important acupuncture or muscular points on the back while a person is lying prone on the floor or a treatment table. Hot stone therapy has also been to include chakra work, which means that the stones are placed on the main energy centers of the body as defined by Buddhism.

 

The idea is that the heat of the stones will help relax the muscles and melt away stress. Originally the stones were allowed to warm up in a fire and then let to cool a bit before they were placed on the person’s body but nowadays they may be heated on a ceramic plate or in water.  For the stone to be hot enough the water is usually heated to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celcius)

 

The stones used are usually made of marble but many other types of stones are used as well.  In Hawaii the stones used are basalt.  The stones can range in size to the size of your thumb to the size of two palms. The very large stones are usually placed in the small of the back.  As the person is lying face down with palms up, two large stones are also placed on the palm of the hands which are considered to be important energy centers in the body. Often the therapist takes the stones and massages the area where they are to be placed before settling them on the skin.  Aromatherapeutic oils are also often used with the stones to help the therapist work them on the skin and relax the customer.

 

Sometimes iced stones are used in conjunction with very hot stones in order to produce a particularly relaxing effect.  The treatment is similar to using hot/cold therapy to help heal injured muscles.

 

More than just a fad this treatment is now available in all kinds of different beauty salons and often you can find it offered as a therapeutic treatment on its own.

 

 

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Have a Sip of Flavored Air at An Oxygen Bar!

It was not until the early nineties that the concept of the bar as a spa or substitute for a cocktail bar came into being and today the air cocktail is still thriving. It might be that before people could not see the value in paying for flavored air.

 

Now oxygen bars exist in major cities all over the world. A silent oxygen generator filters ambient air from the room – which only contains about 21 percent oxygen – creating air that is 92 percent pure oxygen. The user inhales the oxygen through sanitary disposable nose-hoses (called cannulas) for 10-30 minutes. Offerings of organic foods, juices, smoothies, nutraceuticals and beauty treatments often accompany this dose of flavored oxygen.

 

The idea behind the oxygen bar is a fairly simple one: clients sit on a stool, at a counter, as though they were about to order their favorite cocktail. Instead, they receive something even more invigorating, and a whole lot healthier – a 5- to 20-minute dose of 9 percent pure oxygen, inhaled through a series of tubes much like one would get in a hospital. Some oxygen bar also feature lounges or private rooms complete with massage treatments and comfortable recliners.

 

Since oxygen bars were introduced in the United States in the late 1990s, customers are bellying up to bars around the country to sniff oxygen through a plastic hose inserted into their nostrils. Many patrons opt for the “flavored” oxygen produced by pumping oxygen through an aroma en route to the nose.

The appeal of this novelty that became all the rage and the popularity extends to all classes of citizens, from the ecologically minded non-smoker who is concerned about health, to the well-heeled yuppie who simply wants to tell her friends that she has tried the latest flavor of air to the aging matron who is looking for a way to rejuvenate her skin.

 

Supplemental oxygen may also help those who suffer from migraines, bronchitis or who are simply hoping for a fast cure for a hangover!  In fact, many oxygen bars owe their success to the O2’s reputation for curing a hangover.

 

Oxygen bars have manifested in as many forms as there are salons and restaurants. Some oxygen bars boast a very futuristic, utilitarian decor that is more reminiscent of a doctor’s office. Others are part of a homeopathic or naturopathic practice or located within a spa that also offers oxygenated facial treatments.

 

Visiting an oxygen bar can be an interesting experience if you have never been to one. Why not explore this as beautifying treatment and take some time out to breathe!

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